Chloramine removal?

[steven baxter]

Chloramine is in the tap water in my county. It was said that it cannot be removed by letting the water sit, like with chlorine. What would be the best and easiest way to remove the chloramine. I have heard of vitamin C. Are there some other type of tabs or such that can be used?

 

Thanks a lot.

[TCLynx]

Carbon filter will remove it

[Ryan Chatterson]

Has to be a special type of carbon though. They call it "catalytic" carbon. That's why a normal RO unit won't pull out chloramines.

You can also use a chemical like Chloram X or chloramine T.

TCLynx said:

Carbon filter will remove it

[Johann]

If you want to effectively remove chloramine from water, there are not many options open to you, despite many companies claiming their products can! It is extremely hard to remove, so here are some tips to help you find the best method.

This toxic mix of ammonia and chlorine is the toxin of choice these days, with 1 in 5 Americans exposed to it, and more municipal treatments changing over each year. The attraction seems to be that it can stay in the water for longer, and therefore it can clean for longer too, but this causes more problems, making it vital to remove chloramine from water effectively.

One of the main problems of it being in the supplies for longer is that it leeches lead from pipes and fittings, even household brass ones, so you need to remove lead effectively as well as it can cause cancer amongst other things.

This also means that you will need to change your household plumbing more often as it corrodes pipes much quicker, a cost passed onto you from your municipal treatments plant.

Chloramine cannot be removed from water by boiling, distilling or reverse osmosis, which at least helps to narrow your options! Beware of any company trying to sell you one of these as they simply don't work.

The best method, and recommended by the US EPA, is an activated carbon block system. The very best will use a twin or multi-stage process with sub micron filtering and ion exchange for the best results. These can remove chloramine from water at a rate of 99.9%, and also the same removal rate for lead, pesticides, prescription drugs and all the other contaminants.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2428466

[nathaniel taylor]

http://www.chloramine.org/

 

I found out about chloramine right after I got my first tank. What an eye opener.

The above link has answered many of my questions about Chloramine.

 

for example:

 

-Chloramine must be completely removed from the water in dialysis treatment
using extensive carbon filtration and a reverse osmosis or Cation filtering system
to remove both chlorine and ammonia from the water.

- Contrary to SFPUC's website (Q 18), the NSF DOES NOT certify showerhead
filters for chloramine. It only certifies cold-water, low-flow filters for drinking water.

• Rubber corroded parts need to be replaced with chloramine resistant parts such as
synthetic polymer.
• Rubber corrosion can be spotted as early as 6 months after chloramine has been
added to the water supply. Signs of corrosion can be seen when little black specks
appear in the water from plumbing parts.

                                  -CCAC

 

Also some pond products remove chlorimine.

I have heard of Vitamin C and a squeeze of lemon juice in a glass of water supposedly works to remove it for drinking.

I have heard that people slowly drip chlorimone through a carbon filter into pond, or directly into the pond water. - Chlorimine eventually converts to added ammonia... and and the rest is AquaPonic 101.

None of these statements; Have I proven, but here they are for judgement.

 

 

[nathaniel taylor]

and I have used the drip into pond method but then it rained... a lot.

 

this summer I will use tap water and return to experimenting. Need reagents to test for its presence.

 

nathaniel taylor said:

http://www.chloramine.org/

 

I found out about chloramine right after I got my first tank. What an eye opener.

The above link has answered many of my questions about Chloramine.

 

for example:

 

-Chloramine must be completely removed from the water in dialysis treatment
using extensive carbon filtration and a reverse osmosis or Cation filtering system
to remove both chlorine and ammonia from the water.

- Contrary to SFPUC's website (Q 18), the NSF DOES NOT certify showerhead
filters for chloramine. It only certifies cold-water, low-flow filters for drinking water.

• Rubber corroded parts need to be replaced with chloramine resistant parts such as
synthetic polymer.
• Rubber corrosion can be spotted as early as 6 months after chloramine has been
added to the water supply. Signs of corrosion can be seen when little black specks
appear in the water from plumbing parts.

                                  -CCAC

 

Also some pond products remove chlorimine.

I have heard of Vitamin C and a squeeze of lemon juice in a glass of water supposedly works to remove it for drinking.

I have heard that people slowly drip chlorimone through a carbon filter into pond, or directly into the pond water. - Chlorimine eventually converts to added ammonia... and and the rest is AquaPonic 101.

None of these statements; Have I proven, but here they are for judgement.

 

 

[Jonathan P]

Thought you might find this interesting http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/pubs/pdf/05231301.pdf. I have been using Vitamin C to dechlorinate my water and have confirmed that it is effective.

[Rebecca B]

Is the vitamin C changed in the dechlorination process?  If not, please note vitamin C is a bacteriacide and will mess with the nitrifying bacteria.

[nathaniel taylor]

good question no idea... but I would imagine a excess of Vitamin C would upset the balance.

 

I have been adding a quart of tap water to a 55gal tank (divided into 3 sections,)  a day to monitor its effects, I am getting better plant growth and no ill effects. I am placing that in the end of the cycle where most of the fish waste is converted. I am sure that because my tap water has more minerals that I am seeing that effect and some of the ammonia from the conversion. But my science is rather sloppy as I am doing a few things at once... so my results are observational. On a larger scale I don't have a test bed yet. I hope to get some of my more focused geek out friends to help me and develop an experiement to run later this summer on a 350gal tank that I have been maturing, using some lab ware.

 

It is a real problem for us urbanites and we should figure out how to solve this cheaply. So far the slow drip seems reasonable.

 

 

[Rebecca B]

I've read that adding chlorinated water up to 5% of the system's water volume is considered safe for the fish.  It would make sense to give this additional water time to off gas before adding more in this manner.  Your slow drip does seem a reasonable route.

[TCLynx]

With Chlorine you can simply leave the water to off gas to get rid of it but that doesn't work with chloramine.  But in a well matured system adding up to 5% in top up water right from the tap isn't a bit deal.  It is only with a brand new system that adding treated water is going to be an issue.  Like if you have ammonia present in large amounts and you add a lot of chlorinated water you will wind up creating chloramine which will slow or stall the bacteria and take weeks to go away so during initial cycle up, make sure to deal with treated water properly or it could really mess you up.

[Rebecca B]

Thanx TC for that clarification.

[Adam Garrett-Clark]

Thanks for that TCLynx,

I'm not sure if I'm still in the initial stages or not but, my water levels are really low right ow due to leaks and eaporation and I'm not sure if I should put more tap water in or keep hoping it'll rain soon. 

My system is about a month old. I cycled tap water for almost 3 weeks before I dropped fish in ( I do have chloramine in my water). With fish in its been about a month. Maybe 3 weeks actually. The majority of my first crop of goldfish accidentally got spun through the pump and out the otherside within the first couple days. So their bodies may have spiked the ammonia levels in the beginning. THe second batch of fish has steadily died off one by one, every couple days one fish will float to the top. I'm now down to 3-4 goldfish my ammonia and Nitrite levels are still at 0.225 ppm and the nitrate is at 5 ppm. And I recently started sprouting a bunch of snap peas inside the growbed. If I add tap water now will I screw things up? do you think I should add some more fish?

TCLynx said:

With Chlorine you can simply leave the water to off gas to get rid of it but that doesn't work with chloramine.  But in a well matured system adding up to 5% in top up water right from the tap isn't a bit deal.  It is only with a brand new system that adding treated water is going to be an issue.  Like if you have ammonia present in large amounts and you add a lot of chlorinated water you will wind up creating chloramine which will slow or stall the bacteria and take weeks to go away so during initial cycle up, make sure to deal with treated water properly or it could really mess you up.